Campaigns (Wisely) Ignore Reason

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Clinton's new anti-Trump ad is a good example. It shows Trump debuting his new clothing line on TV, each item of which turns out to have been made overseas. This supposedly shows he is a hypocrite on trade.

Of course, this makes no sense at all. It is one thing to think (rightly or wrongly) that we should have tariffs to keep manufacturing in the US. It is quite another, in the absence of such tariffs, to hold that Donald Trump should personally have squandered his investors' money in a futile effort to keep manufacturing in the US. In fact, it would be wildly irresponsible and perhaps criminal for the director of some enterprise to ignore making profits for his investors in order to make a political statement.

But despite the ad making no sense, it will work with many viewers.

Comments

  1. Unknown3:42 PM

    Another conflict between individual and group interest. It's better for me (or my company) to pay less for stuff, but it's worse for certain American producers.

    ReplyDelete

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